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I read today about an interesting iPhone application which basically changes the natural behavior of the iPhone and lets VoIP applications use the 3G network instead of the default Wifi.

This application, Voipover3G, works with the alternative installer Cydia, specifically designed for jailbroken iPhones 3G.

After installing this app, VoIP apps which used to use the Wifi connection, like Fring and Truphone, will be forced to use the 3G data channel. Not having an iPhone 3G I couldn’t test it out, anyway I find it useful in certain contexts even if limited to jailbroken iphones only.

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Technorati Tags: 3G, Apple, Cydia, fring, Installer, iphone, jailbreak, luca filigheddu, truphone, VoIP

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Yesterday I posted the following Tweet:

I immediately received a response and gave a look at the Apple “Old Stuff” online store.

Ok, you can find some interesting deals and discounted old Macbooks and Macbook Pros (together with iPods and so on) but a question arises: is it worth it?

I mean, you pay $400 less for a previous generation Macbook Pro, for example, but you what you are getting is much less than the new generation.

You get a worse and heavier case, no multitouch, worse display, worse graphics and many other improvements introduced with the new Macbook Pro are not available in the previous version.

So what? I would buy it if I could save not less than $800. Sell it in the range $1000 - $1200 and it works. Otherwise, I would definitely go for the new version.

What do you think? Is the price for “clearance items” fair? Leave your comments.

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Technorati Tags: Apple, Deals, luca filigheddu, macbook, MacbookPro, Multi-touch, New macbook pro

Today was the Apple day. All the main technology blogs are reporting the announcements made by Steve Jobs during today’s Apple event. New Macbook, bew Macbook Pro, an updated MacBook Air and the new 24” Apple Cinema Display.

Aside from the great innovations introduced with these new products, far ahead from the competition, it’s pretty clear that Apple computers are still targeted to a niche, not for everyone.

Despite the reduction of the entry price for the Macbook line, $999 Is still a lot of money if compared to the entry level models from other brands (priced in the range $400-$600).

Moreover, the new stunning 24” Cinema Display is priced twice a direct competitor, like models from HP, Dell or Acer, undoubtely great monitors as well.

So what? Is Apple still not for everyone? Well, from a certain standpoint (price) I would say it’s not for everyone. On the other hand, Apple is a marketing leader and innovator. People are willing to spend that amount of money for Apple products because Apple is a king in telling you why their products are better than the competition. For example, today Jobs has been (as usual) a marketing guru by explaining why Apple’s notebooks are better and why consumers should choose them in place of other available alternatives.

In conclusion, despite it is evident to everyone that Apple is definitely MORE expensive than the competition, the truth is that their products are better, they are presented as MUCH better than any other product coming from the competition and consumers FEEL they are really better.

The result? They are worth their price. Period.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Apple Cinema Display, dell, luca filigheddu, macbook, MacBook Air, Macbook Pro, Steve Jobs

Aside from my wedding anniversay (4th), yesterday was the Nokia “iPhone-killer” day. Nokia just announced in London the new and much awaited Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, the first Nokia phone provided with a touchscreen display.

Been labeled as 5800, it means that it’s a mass market phone and the price has been defined accordingly, that is $390 (in Europe should be around euros 290), unlocked. For a complete set of features, take a look at the official Nokia 5800 website, full of animations, videos and complete specifications.

It’s pretty clear that everyone is looking at it as the iPhone’s rival, even if I expect that all the next high-end Nokia phones will be touchscreen and much more feature-rich. This means that this comparison is, to me, a bit like apples and pears and it doesn’t make much sense, but in any case it ’s something people are looking for.

Who is gonna be the winner? Here are my opinions, broken down in 10 categories.

1) Display

Nokia 1 - Apple 1

The new Nokia phone is provided with a 3.2″, 16:9 - 640×360 nHD display with up to 16M colors. An accelerometer is included, so that the screen automatically rotates depending on the orientation of the phone.

The iPhone’s screen is a little bit bigger (3.5″) but the resolution is less, being 480×320. Not having tried the 5800 yet, I cannot tell you more, but I would say I would prefer a better resolution over a not much bigger screen.

2) Size

Nokia 1 - Apple 0

The iPhone is bigger, on average (a little bit longer 115mm vs 111mm,  thinner 12.3mm vs 15.5mm and larger), that means the Nokia is about 25g lighter. Not a big deal, both of them are portable and designed to fit well in your hands. Having a smaller width, the Nokia should be easier to operate with one hand only.

3) Memory

Nokia 1 - Apple 0

While the iPhone comes in two versions, 8GB and 16GB internal memory, the Nokia is offered with 8GB only through a micro SD card. The latter is definitely a more flexible solution since it’s very easy and relatively cheap upgrading to 16GB, something iPhone’s owners cannot do.

4) Network

Nokia 0 - Apple 0

Both phones are provided with a complete range of available voice and data networks, both GSM and 3G, and both phones come in two different versions for 3G (850/1900MHz and 900/2100 Mhz).

5) Input methods

Nokia 1 - Apple 1

Your finger for the iphone, finger, stylus or plectrum for the Nokia. Even if I prefer my finger for both, many will definitely like having more available options. Here  it’s only a metter of personal tastes. Unlike the iPhone, Nokia provides you with a traditional stylus - handwriting, much common to Windows mobile and Palm users.

6) Battery life

Nokia 1 - Apple 0

Daily usage with each of these phones is a different thing, of course, but according to the technical specifications, the Nokia 5800 is overall better either for voice, data and standby (about 15 to 30% more). In addition, Nokia claims up to 35h of music time against 24h of the Apple iPhone.

7) Camera

Nokia 1 - Apple 0

The Nokia is provided with a 3.2Mpix camera with Carl Zeiss Optics and dual flash. On the contrary, the iPhone mounts a very basic 2Mpix camera, no flash, no carl zeiss, far behind the Nokia’s one despite it is certainly not the top as the one mounted in the N95.

Video Recording

Nokia 1 - Apple 0

No native iPhone video recording yet, even if the iPhone is capable of playing various video formats. Services lik Qik works on jailbroken iPhones while it is pre installed in any Nokia 5800 phone. In addition you can record videos with the standard Nokia application and make video calls, something not yet possible on the iphone.

9) UI

Nokia 1 - Apple 1

Hard fight here. The iPhone UI is definitely cool and any customer loves it. The Nokia’s one is promising, with the new contact and  multimedia bar (familiar to N-series owners) but not having tried it yet, I cannot say more. What I bet is that Nokia’s interface will be much better in terms of basic features still missing on the iPhone, like the much requested cut & paste or a much better bluetooth integration, with the ability to send all kind of multimedia files trough bluetooth. I would say it’s a draw at this moment.

10) Music

Nokia 1 - Apple 1

To me, another draw here. Nokia is pushing this phone as a music phone tightly integrated with their new online music store. In addition, any XpressMusic phone will come with one year subscription which lets you download unlimited songs (with DRM). The winner? iTunes is certainly a big one to fight but Nokia is the #1 in the mobile phone market, that means a preferred way to push their services to customers and, with that package, easier to make them prefer their store over iTunes.

Being a long time user of Nokia phones and having access to an iPhone (kinda, my wife’s owns it) I’m not surprised by this result. There is much more to say, like audio quality during phone calls (I bet Nokia will be far superior), GPS as well as the internet browsing experience, I bet much better on the iPhone.

Anyway, right now it looks like the Nokia 5800 is a potential winner, more likely to become a mass market phone rather than the iPhone, the latter being much more expensive and not available without a contract in certain markets like the US. In any case, it’s more a metter of how you are going to use it most.

What do you think? How much market share will Nokia get against the iPhone? Please leave your comments doen here.

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Technorati Tags: Apple, Apple iPhone, comparison, iphone, luca filigheddu, Nokia, Nokia 5800, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

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Telecom Disruptor Pat Phelan posted an interesting message on Twitter, stating he’s going to unlock fifty iPhone 3G during the upcoming TechCrunch 50 conference taking place in San Francisco on September 8-10.

The unlocking procedure will be free of charge for everyone and you can finally start using your iPhone 3G with your favorite mobile operator.

Is Pat going to use this procedure?

If you own an iPhone and are nearby, don’t forget to come by Pat and ask him to unlock your phone and enjoy some giveaways he is preparing for the attendants.

Technorati Tags: Apple, iphone, luca filigheddu, pat phelan, techcrunch 50

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In the effort of pushing their mobile platform, Google announced yesterday the launch of Android Market, a place where people can easily download and buy content for their Android-powered device.

Anyone familiar with Apple would compare this new marketplace to the mobile App Store, but I don’t think they have that much in common.

Currently Android Market is no more than a developer thing, through which early developers on the Android platform can easily reach a “decent” user base, even if it is certainly the first step to provide operators and handset manufacturers (which will bet on this new mobile OS) with a comprehensive set of online software services to immediately create a new revenue stream coming from value added contents sold to their users.

Some question arise, as Alec Saunders points out on his blog as well. Developers are currently focused on Apple which is performing amazingly with the recent launch of the iPhone 3G in different markets and with a huge user base of owners of the new Cupertino’s toy willing to fill it with new applications. Moreover, only HTC and LG are, to my knowledge, the only big players developing android-powered handsets and HTC alone is going to deliver a number of handsets which is only a small slice of the market owned by Apple with its iPhone (and HTC will release Android handsets with a huge delay).

The other problem for Google raised by the report is that software developers are said to have their hands full with the mobile phone software that’s actually available for development, such as Windows Mobile, Symbian, BlackBerry, and the iPhone. HTC is worried enough about a lack of attention as to demand a “minimum revenue guarantee” from Google in exchange for launching an Android handest.

What’s next with Android? Is Google talking with too much fanfare about its mobile platform despite developers are looking elsewhere?

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Technorati Tags: Android, android market, App Store, Apple, Google, HTC, iphone, iPhone 3G, LG, luca filigheddu

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The standard email client of any S60 device is (IMHO) the worst part of this operating system. I never used it and any time I tried, I gave up after a few hours.

Now it seems they are getting serious about email clients, releasing a new mobile email client that brings email on your Nokia S60 phones to a new level. It’s clear that  if one of the best applications of the Apple iPhone is, in my opinion, the email client, Nokia must do something to try to compete with that fantsatic user experience Apple made available to us.

Even if it is still a step behind the Apple client, the new Nokia email client is something that you can finally use and enjoy. Moreover it supports push email, so I’m now receiving all my emails on this client as soon as they arrive (and it is IMAP, so if I do something on this client, changes are synched with my GMail web version).

The user interface is clean and nice and any operation can be performed very quickly. You can configure this client with an email account only and you can configure this as soon as you are subscribing to the service. Major email services are supported but corporate emails are not available yet. It’s not a problem for me since I have all my email accounts forwarded to Gmail in order to leverage its powerful spam filter.

If you want to try it out, just go to this link and follow the instructions. You’ll receive an SMS with the link to download the application. It is completely free but a subscription fee will be applied as soon as the service will be out of beta.

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Technorati Tags: Apple, Apple iPhone, E-mail client, email, gmail, iphone, Nokia, S60 platform